Twenty one faculty of the Center for Visual Science (CVS) at the University of Rochester request renewal of support for a pre-doctoral and postdoctoral training program that emphasizes two broadly defined areas of vision research - research into central visual processing using psychophysical, physiological, and computational approaches and research in physiological optics using advanced optical techniques to study both basic questions about retinal processing and for translational research on eye disease. Training is interdisciplinary, drawing particularly on the unique technical and intellectual resources of the Center. It covers a broad range of basic and clinical problems in vision, but emphasizes approaches that link visual performance to underlying neural mechanisms. We request each year support for six pre-doctoral trainees, who will generally enter the program through Brain and Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Neuroscience, Biomedical Engineering, or the Institute of Optics. Students take core courses plus advanced seminars in visual science, augmented by courses from the department through which they entered the program. They attend regular colloquia, research meetings and the biannual CVS Symposium and Fall Vision Meeting. Concurrently with course work, students complete research projects in CVS preceptor labs we request each year support for one postdoctoral fellow. Postdoctoral training has a heavy emphasis on research. The training grant will be used especially to draw talented scientists from other areas into vision research. We are also requesting stipends for eight summer undergraduate research fellows to participate in an ongoing program that we have developed to introduce students to research in vision science and recruit students into graduate training in visual science. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The vision training grant provides interdisciplinary training in vision science for graduate students and post-docs of 21 faculty mentors in the Center for Visual Science at the University of Rochester. It also supports a summer undergraduate research program that attracts students from outside Rochester to spend 10 weeks in the summer working in CVS mentors'labs and attending lectures on a broad range of topics in vision science.